With the pandemic, the whole world passed through difficult times and it seems the effects will last for a while. People have suffered from various health problems resulting from the death of more than 400.000 people and millions of patients, what a tragedy. We have faced this illness, not just a common region or a country but almost all of the countries. We have experienced unusual scenes, almost like a movie scene, cancellation of Olympics, and many other global organizations which were the biggest crisis on Earth after World War I and II.Along with the pandemic, consumer behavior and purchasing habits changed. Since emotions and key motivations play a huge role in purchasing decisions, apart from basic needs, the impulsive purchasing behavior almost stroke the bottom.

We had to transform in a couple of weeks which may take many years and almost everyone has experienced digital transformation.

The pandemic was one of the most difficult times for startups but also provided some opportunities in terms of fulfillment, change of target audience, and many other actions. Some expenses as office rentals, transportation, and many others will be reconsidered due to the transformation and adaptation of working from home, distance education, and online meetings. Most of the startups which are away from main districts were having difficulties attending training, workshops, and some programs due to transportation and accommodation costs but in today’s world with online attendance, this barrier has disappeared. In today’s world, the distances, cities, and these types of barriers don’t exist. We have listened to amazing ideas with the pride of many participants with some disadvantages or disabilities at Hackathons during the pandemic. Changing market conditions, the different crises that have been experienced should be perceived as an incubation time by startups to initiate or develop and get stronger. We also listened to promising and encouraging startups with ideas such as effective use of 3D printers and producing local ventilators with pride. We can see that in the coming future startups who has a touch over human and provide value on the healthcare segment will be supported and get stronger.With the ‘new normal’ in both Turkey and around the world, the startups who are eager to detect and read the changing priorities and expectations of the consumers will move towards getting stronger. We are facing a period of constantly changing consumer behavior and therefore marketing strategies and actions. The marketing techniques that have been applied for almost a century is of course not diminishing its power but evolving. The process which started with traditional marketing has transformed into digital marketing very quickly at the beginning of the 2000s.Digital marketing is preserving its position and importance when it comes to providing a competitive advantage to startups against big brands. The time spend on social media platforms increased by 70%, e-commerce activities, and time spent on online screens also increased. All these changes in habits provide new opportunities for startups.In the new world where traditional marketing rules have transformed into digital marketing, we are talking about something new, emotional marketing. Brands are not only focusing only on consumption focused but also on emotional and human-centered marketing. They build their strategy on people’s daily life problems and solutions to those. Some parameters such as what their target audience likes and don’t like, what they don’t want to see, what they are afraid of, or what they desire to play a much more important role than before.

It’s not enough to know your target audience, it’s time to meet them.

Emotional marketing provides brands the power of storytelling and delivers hope especially in difficult times, as we are now. Brand stories play a crucial role in emotional bonding with brands. There are many ways for startups to explain their identities and visions by simplifying their emotional identities and stories but the most important one among them is emotional marketing.If you can manage to reach to emotions of your target audience along with reaching their senses, you can leave bigger and more impactful prints on them. However, price, brand perception, and some other factors play a role in purchasing decisions, there is an undeniable fact that emotions play an important role, as well. In emotional marketing, heart rather than the brain, soul rather than mind should be a target. You can be kept in mind and create an impact on audiences if you can manage to tell your story over emotions with keeping away dramatization and irritation.Aristotle’s “Persuasion Triad” will shed light on startups that want to focus on emotional marketing.Aristotle summarizes persuasion in 3 points;ETHOS: Trust, reputation and previous experiences’ impact is 10%LOGOS: Logic and data’s impact is 25%PATHOS: Emotions’ impact is more than half with 65%Startups have an amazing opportunity to impress judges, investors, and the target audience. Previous experiences and data have a 35% impact on persuasion. We can’t ignore the emotions’ role in persuasion with 65%. Aristotle can’t be wrong since the biggest difference between machines and humans is that however they both can think result-oriented with rationalism and logic, humans decide with emotions. Humans first feel and think. The key to bond with emotions and take a further step of selling a product, service, or platform to your target audience is emotional marketing.